The global gaming market is estimated to reach $201 billion this year, representing a 9% increase from $184 billion in 2022, according to Konvoy’s Q1 2023 Gaming Industry Report.
Konvoy predicts that the industry will continue to grow at a rate of 9% over the next several years, reaching $283 billion by 2027. Despite this, venture capital funding has fallen to pre-2021 levels, suggesting a marked slowdown in industry growth. Q1 2023 saw VC investments reach $761 billion in funding, marking the second consecutive quarter where funding has fallen short of a billion dollars. This follows eight consecutive quarters where investment exceeded this figure, peaking at a collective raise of $3.196 billion in Q4 2021.
Early-stage investments continue to dominate funding, with a total of 103 deals struck over the quarter, while six investments were made to accelerate growth. Meanwhile, Q1 2023 marked the fifth consecutive quarter with Konvoy reporting no late stage investments, indicating that VC funds are increasingly interested in funding new companies as opposed to those with established success.
Investments by region
Asia drew the largest percentage of gaming venture funding in Q1, generating $97 million in early-stage funding and $265 million in growth funding, for a total of $362 million. This was followed by North America, with $234 million in early-stage funding and $21 million in growth, for a total of $255 million.
Despite this disparity in deal value, the two regions were neck and neck in terms of deal volume. While only two funds invested in growth over the quarter, Asia saw 40 deals early-stage investments, compared to 41 in North America.
Only one other region, Europe, exceeded $100 million in funding, with $61 million going towards 18 early-stage funds while $43 million went towards growth over two deals.
Despite the growth in the region, only one African company, Carry1st, received VC funding in 2022. However, this figure exceeds last year’s total of $24 million, making 2023 the most successful year for the continent in terms of VC funding value.
Two gaming venture deals were struck in South America, with a combined value of $6.1 million. These two deals are the first struck on the continent since Q2 2022.
Public gaming companies hold a collective $47.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents, with Nintendo coming in at number one with $9.7 billion. This was followed by Activision at $7.1 billion, Sea Group at $6 billion, and NetEase at $3.6 billion. In terms of tech companies with gaming divisions, mobile mainstay Tencent comes in second place with $22.8 billion, behind Amazon which holds $54.9 billion. Netflix, which first entered the games space in 2021, came in eighth place with $5.1 billion.
We listed several of the companies listed in the article as some of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
